Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Gordon Ramsay's in Memphis to Save a Restaurant!

Just when you think it's going to be another typical Wednesday in Memphis, snow starts to fall from the sky, and you look out your window to see Gordon Ramsay's "Hell on Wheels" 18-wheeler rounding the corner of your office building. The truck is part of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares reboot: 24 Hours to Hell and Back.

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Matthew Preston

Gordon Ramsay's revamped restaurant renovation/intervention show is essentially the same as the original Kitchen Nightmares, but the makeover has been consolidated into a single day, replete with a countdown timer for good measure. The show purports to be a simple kitchen renovation show, and installs known and hidden cameras to record the restaurant in action. Some time later, Gordon Ramsay will show up with a group to dine at that restaurant, in a prosthetic makeup disguise, only to reveal his identity and berate the awfulness of the food mid-meal.

The "Hell on Wheels" truck dishes education and shame in equal measure. It unfolds to become a kitchen where Ramsay's team teaches the chefs of the restaurant in question how to cook the new menu, and produces a large video board where the restaurant's staff and patrons witness the hidden footage captured before Ramsay's arrival. Those videos typically feature pretty gross things, ranging from unsanitary kitchen practices to toxic workplace exchanges, outbursts at patrons, animal infestations, and structural issues with the building.

The Flyer isn't aware of the restaurant that'll be featured on 24 Hours to Hell and Back, but candidates on Ramsay's show tend to be restaurants that were once considered good, located in a desirable and lucrative part of town, and frequently have a strong-headed owner or chef that's in denial about the business failing, and contributing to that failure with their apathy or toxicity.

As a big time Gordon Ramsay addict, I'm thrilled for Memphis to get airtime on the show. As a dude who works downtown, I'm hoping to become a lunch regular at a revamped restaurant nearby.